Dierks Bentley’s ‘The Mountain': Everything You Need to Know

Dierks Bentley is gearing up to release his ninth studio album, The Mountain, later this year. Inspired while performing this past summer at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the singer revisited Colorado months later with several songwriters, where he wrote the majority of the songs on the upcoming release. Read on for all of the details that are available about Dierks Bentley's The Mountain.

The Title

The record is fittingly called The Mountain, and it was inspired by Bentley's visit to Telluride Bluegrass Festival and his performance in the Colorado mountain town. But the title is really a metaphor for Bentley's career.

"I feel like I'm on the mountain, like people are using me as a stepping stone to go higher," he said during a speech at the Country Radio Seminar, noting that he's watched many of his peers pass him, then fall back on their own roads to success.

"You're at the top of the peak, but all of a sudden, you're moving to theatres; you have to start all over again," he explains. "Now, I feel like we're in a good spot, you're either going up or down...I feel like we're still climbing."

The Producers

Frequent collaborators Ross Copperman, Jon Randall, and executive producer Arturo Buenahora Jr. assisted Bentley in bringing his vision to life for The Mountain.

The Single

The album's lead single, "Woman, Amen," was inspired by the woman he's most grateful for — his wife Cassidy. While Bentley has said "Woman, Amen" isn't his wife's favorite song on the album, he felt it was an important first single.

"Family is always inspiring me," he says during a video chat with fans. "I think the first single shows that. It's more about life and living, and that feeling of not just being alive but living and going for stuff. That's what the overall album is about."

He carries this theme throughout the project. "It all starts at home," he says of The Mountain. "With gratitude."

The Songs

Bentley returned to Telluride a short time following his performance at the festival for a retreat with songwriters Natalie Hemby, Luke Dick, Ross Copperman, Jon Randall, Jon Nite and Ashley Gorley. The bulk of the album’s songs, including the title track, were written during that week. Bentley describes it as the most inspiring creative experience he’s ever had.

“Telluride just makes you want to reach for your guitar,” Bentley says. “We all went out there and got completely off the grid...out of our normal element and the grind that happens on Music Row and it was, from the very get-go, magic. We’d wake up every morning, grab a coffee, take the gondola up, watch the sun come up over the mountains, and by 8:30 we were writing. We just wrote non-stop."

There's a track on the album called "Living" that discusses days you're thankful for. "Some days you just get by, some days you're just alive, but some days you're living," Bentley says of the hook.

Another song, "Can't Bring Me Down," finds the singer on a whole other level where his confidence can't be broken. While he explains that the album is nature-themed, "it's also about what it feels like when you're living that way," he adds.

“Obviously, the songs were written and recorded in the mountains. But it's the mountain that we’re all faced with every day, and the struggle to put one foot in front of the other even when things are hard, that we all have in common," he says. "Looking back now, I think we were all searching for hope and optimism when we were writing this music.”

The Release Date

Bentley has not revealed the exact release date for The Mountain, but fans can expect the album in 2018.

The Cover

Bentley has not yet revealed the cover art for The Mountain. Taste of Country will share that information as soon as it is released.

The Record Label

Bentley will release The Mountain via his longtime record label, Capitol Records Nashville.